BAC Military Aircraft
by
Peter Dancey
SMASHWORDS EDITION
***** PUBLISHED BY:
Peter Dancey on Smashwords
BAC Military Aircraft
Copyright © 2010 by Peter Dancey
All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or
transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above pub- lisher of this book
This is a work of non-fiction. Names, characters, places, brands, media, and incidents are real. The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of various products ref- erenced in this factual work, which have been used without permission. The
publication/use of these trademarks is not authorised, associated with, or sponsored by the trade- mark owners
Smashwords Edition License Notes
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the author's work.
*****
BAC Military Aircraft
The creation of BAC resulted in the group inheriting a number of military projects and aircraft types from the subsidiaries. The most notorious of these being the TRS.2 multi-role aircraft conceived by EE and Vickers Armstrong in 1959 with BAC awarded the production contract with Vickers as the prime contractor. 5yrs later the controversial cancellation of the project brought BAC close to collapse but orders for the BAC 1-11-500 the Super VC-10 and orders for the BAC (English Electric) Lightning supersonic air-defence fighter and the Anglo-French Sepecat Jaguar close-support strike plane kept the company going.
The BAC Lightning was the first truly supersonic British fighter. The aircraft was conceived by Mr W E 'Teddy Petter designer of the EE Canberra light-bomber. The Lightning presented such complex aerodynamic problems that a special wind tunnel had to be constructed to carry out airframe tests the first of its kind in Great Britain whilst for the first time in Britain much of the design was by means of a specially-built computer. In order to minimise the risk in the venture it was decided to build a scaled-down flying test-bed. The work was placed with Short Brothers in Northern Ireland who produced the Shorts SB.5 which first flew on 2 December 1952 and went on to supply invaluable test data prior to the prototype Lightning's (serial WG760) first flight nearly 2yrs later on the 4 August 1954 at Boscombe Down, Wiltshire. After a lengthy development phase with 20 pre-production aircraft produced the Lightning began to enter RAF front-line service in 1960 as the Lightning F 1 armed with two 30mm cannon and two Firestreak air-to-air missiles. A unique feature of the aircraft was that its two R-R Avon 300 turbojets with reheat were mounted in the fuselage one above the other. It is believed that specification limits for fitment of the engines to the airframe were so tight that one airframe produced at BAC Warton had to be scrapped as it was impossible to fit the lower engine. In total 258 production Lightning were delivered to the RAF by the time the final BAC F.6 variant left the production line in August 1967 with production totalling 388 aircraft. The aircraft did achieve some limited export success being used by the Royal Saudi Air Force and the Kuwaiti Air Force for a number of years. Although neither of these air arms ever really operated the aircraft to its full potential. The Lightning remains the only RAF combat aircraft never to have been actually involved in any hostilities throughout its 30yrs service life.
The Sepecat (Sociétè Europèenne de Production de l’ Avion Ecole de Combat et d’ Appui Tactique) Jaguar was a collaborative venture between BAC and Dassault/Breguet to manufacture 400 low-level strike fighters for the RAF and the Armee de l' Air. A similar collaborative agreement was reached by R-R and Turboméca for design and production of Adour 811 turbo-fan engines with reheat. Many French and British designs were studied before the Breguet Br.121 was selected as the basis for the new warplane. The Jaguar is a classic ground-attack aircraft and has achieved success in the export markets with the Jaguar International variant used by Ecuador, Nigeria, the Royal Omani Air Force and the Indian Air Force who initially acquired 35 single-seater airplanes and 5 dual-seat trainers and manufactured in excess of 100 made under-licence by HAL (Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd). Series production of the British RAF Jaguars was undertaken at the BAC plants at Preston and Warton, Lancashire. 573 Sepecat Jaguars were built in total. An important the trials aircraft is UK military serial XX765 allocated by the MoD RAE (later DERA -- now QuinetiQ) for ACT or Active Control Technology evaluation in effect fly-by-wire. Much of the flight test data acquired over a number of had practical applications in the Eurofighter Typhoon fly-by-wire systems. Another military design inherited by BAC was the H 145 (Jet Provost T 5) a private venture development by Hunting Aircraft of Luton to provide the RAF with a pressurised
version of the earlier Jet Provost T 3 and T 4 trainers. The T 5 was intended to meet the RAF's requirement for a high-altitude jet trainer, needed by modern air force. When Hunting became the Luton Division of BAC the type was re-designated BAC 145. The prototype T 5 was a converted T.4 serial XS230 that made its maiden flight at BAC Warton on 28 February 1967. The closure of the Luton plant meant production of the 110 T 5 was carried out at Warton. BAC secured export orders for 150 Jet Provost for Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, New Zealand and at least 6 other countries for the trainer ground-attack BAC 167 Strikemaster derivative.
BAC was a founder member of Panavia GmBH a company set-up to manage the development and production of the Tornado multi-role combat aircraft a joint venture with Messerschmitt- Bolkow-Blohm -- MBB Germany and Fiat (later Aeritalia) Italy. As the MRCA -- multi-role combat aircraft, the variable-geometry wing interdictor strike (IDS) Tornado made its first flight on 14 August 1974.
Post-WW II it was realised if British aircraft manufacturers were to remain a major player in the field of military aircraft design development and production a degree of rationalisation and consolidation was needed. Already in 1960 the Hawker Siddeley Group comprised such famous names as Armstrong-Whitworth Avro Gloster and Hawker and in accordance with the British Government\s policy at this time acquired Blackburn Folland and de Havilland companies. The British Aircraft Corporation (BAC) with its headquarters at 100 Pall Mall London SW1 formed in February 1960 under the chairmanship of Lord Portal with Sir George Edwards of Vickers as Managing Director but BAC did not officially come into existence until 1 July 1960. BAC comprised Vickers-Armstrong (Aircraft) Ltd (40% shareholding) Bristol Aircraft Ltd (20% shareholding) Hunting Aircraft Ltd (almost immediately wholly-owned) and English Electric Aviation Ltd (40% shareholding). Employees totalled 30,030 the rationalisation meant the company's sphere of activities covered all the three main fields of aerospace -- civil aircraft, military aircraft guided weapons and space. BAC's inherited military aerospace product base on formation in 1960 included:
1. Bristol Britannia: turbo-prop airliner production nearly complete (civil and military for RAF Transport Command)
2. Bristol Britannic wing. Bristol design and manufacture of the wings for 10 long-range heavy- lift strategic-transports for RAF Transport Command the aircraft built by Short Brothers and Harland in Belfast, Northern Ireland -- named 'Belfast'.